The present invention relates to fabrics fabricated from infusible fibers and fusible fibers of thermotropic liquid crystal polymers.
Fabrics have been produced comprised of fusible and infusible fibers. The fusible fibers, typically comprised of thermoplastic polymeric materials, are initially woven together with the infusible fibers into a fabric, with the fabric subsequently being heat treated at a temperature above the melting point of the fusible fibers. The fusible fibers thus become thermally bonded to adjacent infusible fibers and, in effect, serve as a matrix therefore. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,620,892 and British Patent Nos. 1,228,573 and 1,260,409. Conventional thermoplastic materials possess certain disadvantages, however, in that the physical characteristics of the thermoplastic material (e.g., strength and polymer orientation within the fibers) are significantly lessened as a result of the thermal bonding of the fibers. It is therefore desirable to provide a fabric comprised of fusible and infusible materials wherein the fusible material retains its desirable physical characteristics subsequent to being heated above its melting temperature.
It is also known to those skilled in the art that the heat treatment of shaped articles of liquid crystal polymers increases the melting temperature, molecular weight and mechanical properties of the polymer. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,975,487; 4,183,895; and 4,247,514.